A totally bitchen '80s rush story
 

Yeah, yeah, I know....I said I'd never do this. But I'm so pathologically excited to have my desktop back I want to type just for the pure joy of typing. Plus I should probably save this for posterity before I become senile.

I rushed at a state school in Pennsylvania with a student population of 6000ish in the mid-1980s. I won't be revealing the names of the groups on here (except the one I end up at which you all know, duh) so if you really really have a burning need to know, PM me when the story's done. :) There were seven sororities and I will be using the names of beloved 1980s clothing stores. (Some of these may be semi-local but we didn't know that stuff before the intraweb.)

Ups & Downs
Merry Go Round
Susie's Casuals
Foxmoor
County Seat
Ormond
Reunion

I rushed in the fall of my sophomore year. My school had deferred rush so formal rush was in the spring. We had a partially structured rush which worked as follows:

-Meet the Greeks - All rushees visit each sorority for 30 minutes in classrooms in the the oldest and prettiest building on campus. (It may have been less time than that, my DITTO SHEET doesn't say. :) ) No cuts made after this round.

-Theme Parties - hour-ish each, spread out over a week. Rushees could go to as many or few theme parties as they liked.

-Pref Parties - hour-ish each, spread out over the next week. Rushees had to be invited.

-Bid Day was Friday of the second week.

The theme and pref parties were held in suites, houses, dorm activity rooms or classrooms depending on each group's housing situation. At the time, only two sororities had houses. One group was still in a dorm suite - this was what most of the groups had been doing but the college needed the space and was pushing them out if the opportunity arose. Total on campus at the time was 50.

Some of the other ladies in this story will have the names of the original SEVEN (look it up kids) Facts of Life girls.

Rush started on Sunday with Meet the Greeks. My best friend Molly was going through rush also so we went over together.

I was really confused and worried about a lot of what was going on and I ended up talking to Blair, who it turned out was the Panhel president. She gave me her number and told me to call if I needed anything which was great. Other than that, I don't remember a whole heck of a lot about MTG except for two groups:

Ormond was acknowledged to be the "rich pretty princess" group on campus. They all had to buy matching suits and formal dresses (no other groups on campus did this) and they could only date certain guys and etc etc etc...those were the rumors. When I walked into their room, they obviously had decided to play against type. They had a country theme and were all dressed in overalls, pigtails, etc...but of course if you are cute as can be you can get away with that. I ended up talking to this girl named Tootie. Now besides being very beautiful, her name stuck in my mind because it was the name of one of my favorite soap opera characters. Anyway, I had a great time talking to her and was pleasantly surprised how I felt about Ormond.

The other group that stuck out in my mind was Merry Go Round. This group had a reputation for hazing, and I don't mean scavenger hunts or silly quizzes...I mean beatings. I really wanted to give them a chance though, so I tried entering their room with an open mind. I ended up paired with a girl who was from a hometown near mine and tried to talk to her about hometown things, but it was evident she had very little interest in talking to me. Now there was another thing about Merry Go Round that was a negative in my mind. Our previous semester's RA had been one of their sisters, and she basically promised Molly a bid - to the point that Molly suicided. Obviously Molly didn't get a bid since she was rushing again. So those two things, coupled with the fact that no one in this group seemed very friendly to me, made up my mind. I wasn't going to go to Merry Go Round's theme party the next night.

Wait ... Shouldn't Blair be an Ormond? And does George Clooney and his mullet make an appearance?

She might be, and he might be :)

This thread is so rad! *tightens side ponytail*

OMG UPS & DOWNS! I loved that store back in the day. I like this thread already. : )

You had me at totally bitchen. :-D

Yeah! 80's! Merry Go Round, Foxmoor and Ups and Downs bring back wonderful shopping memories.

Oh man am I way out of my league with all these 80s references that I was not around for, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy the story!

33, I'm begging you - shoulder pads! Big hair!

AHAHAHAHA. Thank you so much for this story.

Let me tighten up my Adidas shelltops!

Cute story. Sounds a lot like my NPC rush.

I used to love Ormond!

So, did you have a boyfriend at the time? Because if you did, I bet he pledged Chess King!

Darn it, chi-o cat, you beat me to it. I was going to ask if they had mixers with Chess King, Jeans West, or Just Pants. Some of these might be '70s, though.

Are you going to make one post a day?